AFC Wildcard Summary

The first game of the day can pretty much be summed up by the final score, Kansas City 30 Houston 0. It just wasn't much of a game, the Texans committed five turnovers, which you just can't have in a playoff game. It seems like the Chiefs are one of the better teams in the playoff and they might just take the AFC crown.

The second game of the day featured a very intense rivalry and a lot of controversy. The Bengals committed two incredibly stupid penalties to give the Steelers a free 30 yards and an easy shot at a game winning field goal which they took advantage of to win 18-16. But it only got to that point because Pittsburgh's starting quarterback went out with a shoulder injury when the Steelers were up 15-0. The Bengals took advantage of this and scored 16 straight points in the fourth quarter, taking the lead with a touchdown pass with just under 2 minutes left in the game. That's when things started to get weird.

At that point Ben Roethlisberger was still out with the shoulder injury and the Steelers turned to backup Landry Jones to win the game. I don't think it was more than two plays in when Jones threw an interception to the Bengals. Luckily for the Steelers the Bengals gave it right back with about 90 seconds left. Which meant the Steelers had the ball on their own 20 yard line with 3 timeouts, only needing 3 points to win the game. Pittsburgh then put Ben Roethlisberger back in the game, although it was apparent that he didn't really have much power in his arm. The Steelers got into Cincinnati territory with 22 seconds left after converting a fourth down, but they were out of timeouts. Then after a Steelers incomplete pass over the middle Bengals player Vontaze Burfict lowered his shoulder and appeared to intentionally hit Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown in the head. Now I would be acting very biased if I didn't point out that Steelers linebacker had an equally dangerous hit on Cincinnati running back Giovanni Bernard earlier in the game. Burfict was flagged for his hit while Ryan Shazier was not, the reason is because Burfict hit a "defenseless" player, Brown is defenseless because he didn't have the ball. While it was ruled that Bernard wasn't defenseless because he had the ball. I dislike both hits, but my opinion is that Shazier was just trying to make a play, while Burfict intentionally trying to hurt Brown. If you don't agree with me, try typing in "Vontaze Burfict dirty plays" and you can just for yourself, because that's certainly not the only one.